Mandatory Electronic Logging Devices Likely Delayed until 2016

DON JERRELLHNI Associate Vice President

The rule for electronic logging devices likely will not take effect until 2016, a year later than originally intended, according to comments from a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration official.

The FMCSA instead will publish a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking on electronic logging device rules in September of this year. The rules will be finalized in 2014. The regulation probably will go into effect in 2016.

The rules were to be finalized in October of this year, and the regulation was to take effect in 2015.

The October deadline had been set in the MAP-21 Act, the federal legislation passed in 2012 to improve commercial motor vehicle safety and to keep unsafe drivers off roads.

Anne Ferro, FMCSA administrator, said she was "optimistic" the electronic logging device rule could be finalized in 2014 and put in place in late 2016.

Ferro made the announcement late last month at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky.

Rules about electronic logging devices (which also have been called electronic onboard recorders or EOBRs) have faced legal challenges. A 2010 rule requiring certain motor carriers to use electronic logging devices was overturned in 2011.

Congress called for electronic logging device rules in MAP-21.

Some stakeholders in the trucking industry have expressed concern that electronic logging devices could be used to harass drivers, while others embrace the change. The FMCSA said it will survey drivers in December about harassment, which is related to driver privacy, but the agency has yet to request survey funding.

Transport Topics reported that the number of carriers using electronic logging devices in their trucks was 35% in February, up from 25% in May 2012.